Business Lunch - Manufacturing today: It’s place in the economic environment and more particularly its importance to Victoria and the region.

We are continually hearing in the media and from many of our politicians that “Manufacturing is Dead”.

But the reality is that there has never been a better time to be a manufacturer. We are in our 13th straight month of growth and are the biggest contributor to employment growth in Victoria and more particularly our region.

Manufacturing is continually told that we need to “innovate” and change, but, again, we have been innovating and changing since time immemorial.

Manufacturing is no longer a dirty, dumb and dangerous occupation but is safe, sexy and smart. Hear the story.

A highly successful Senior Executive, start-up specialist and change agent with an impressive track record of performance improvement, business turnaround and technology management in the automotive OE/AM sales, product planning and engineering sectors in Europe, USA and Australia. SEMMA represent an alliance of over 200 cross sector manufacturing companies with a key focus is future government policy related to the long term future of manufacturing. Adrian has been the Executive Officer at SEMMA for five years.

Process and results-driven, he harnesses high energy levels to run major projects and large engineering and sales functions, thriving on resolving people, organisational and technical challenges. Very used to high level customer, board and government interface.

With extensive linguistic skills and experience working with, and adapting to, different cultures, he has demonstrated ability in selecting high performers and motivating others to succeed.

Past Events

Below are some of our past Monash Business Award events.

Business Lunch - How to Collaborate and Grow

Collaboration is an important aspect for all businesses and can provide avenues to larger projects and new markets. Come along to this lunch event and hear from Georgia Beattie, CEO of Startup Victoria, who nurtures collaboration for large, small and startup businesses. Having successfully started a business that she sold in 2016, Georgia's experiences are priceless. Don't miss this opportunity to hear her speak.

Georgia Beattie

Georgia began her career studying entrepreneurship at Babson College, Boston and RMIT, Melbourne. Shortly after finishing her University degrees, Georgia raised seed capital to found wine startup Lupé Wines in 2011. Lupé Wines specialised in supplying events, airlines and hotel minibars with the world’s first single serve glass of wine designed for ease of use. The company expanded quickly across Australia, Japan, Korea, Taiwan and China. Lupé was listed as top 10 startups to watch by BRW and Georgia was listed as Top 50 Entrepreneurs to watch in 2015. Georgia was a key note speaker on entrepreneurship at the 2015 G20 Summit in Turkey. In 2016 the company was successfully sold.

Georgia took on the CEO role at Startup Victoria in 2016 to help organise the startup ecosystem from her experience as an Australia entrepreneur. Startup Victoria is the go-to independent startup body for Victoria that focuses on creating more founders and better founders. The main initiatives the company runs are a monthly Pitch Night, Australias first startup platform which offers a central location for events, jobs, resources and mentors, and Victorias first startup ecosystem datamap.

Georgia also sits on the board of Second Bite, RMIT’s New Enterprise Investment Fund and is an Expert Advisory Member for the Australian Federal Government Accelerating Commercialisation Programme.

Business Lunch - Using Innovation to Create a Point of Difference

Innovation is the new black. Everyone is talking about it and that it is the only way for businesses to move forward into the new digital age.

Join us at this lunch to hear from Angeline Achariya who will speak about how innovation can help small to medium sized businesses to create a point of difference in markets with a focus on domestic & export markets. This is essentially how to go faster and reduce the risk of innovation for sustainable business growth.

Angeline has more than 20 years of diverse international innovation and leadership experience in markets such as Japan, China, Thailand, New Zealand and Australia. Angeline has led cross- functional teams across innovation, strategy development, market expansion and R&D execution. Her leadership has resulted in over 800 innovations launched across grocery and quick service restaurants with blue chip FMCG companies like Masterfoods Japan, Fonterra, Yum! Brands and Mondelez International. Angeline is on a number of advisory boards and committees and most noteworthy is the development of Victoria’s Food & Fibre strategy in 2015. Angeline’s strong commercial and innovation skills have paved the way for her leading and establishing a world first industry shared model, the Mondelez International Food Innovation Centre (FIC). The FIC has transitioned to Monash University in 2016 as a neutral industry shared innovation services start up to support the growth and revitalisation of the Australian food and beverage industry.

Business Lunch - 7-Eleven’s Reform Journey and Lessons Learned

In August 2015, ABC’s 4 Corners and Fairfax media exposed widespread wage underpayment within 7-Eleven’s franchised store network, and the business embarked on a journey of remediation and reform.

Angus McKay joined the business as its new CEO in March 2016 and has led a wide-ranging change program throughout the business, including the largest wage repayment program in Australia’s history, and a comprehensive voluntary compliance deed signed with the Fair Work Ombudsman described as “the most robust and comprehensive that any franchise brand has in place in Australia.”

In his presentation, Angus will outline 7-Eleven’s journey over the last two years, and reflect on some important lessons learned.

Angus McKay

Angus is responsible for leading the 7-Eleven team, growing the 7-Eleven market, implementing the Reform Program agenda and maintaining the company’s position as Australia’s first choice in convenience.

Angus’ former roles include Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of The Skilled Group, Managing Director of Pacific National Rail, Chief Financial Officer for Asciano Limited, and various senior roles at Foster’s Group, including Chief Financial Officer.

Gala Dinner – Category Winners and the MBA Business of The Year to be announced

The Monash Business Awards gala dinner will celebrate the category finalists and winners for the 2016/17 year and crown the Business of The Year.

Throughout the year, there have been 27 nominee businesses across the eight categories who have presented at the lunch events. These businesses have been judged from over 40 applications received as worthy nominees and have showcased the Monash business community. This gala event enables the MBA to recognise the excellent businesses who have been shortlisted as finalists from each category and celebrate the overall winners. Each of the category winners are then put forward to be named MBA Business of The Year.

Join us to celebrate with our business community, valued sponsors and supporters. It promises to be a great event with local band Capital Avenue providing entertainment throughout the evening.

Theme: Not Black

Business Lunch - How to be strategic when the future is unknown

Often you go away and agree on some central goal - say a mission or where you want to be “in ten years’ time” and then work out how you'll get there working down from high levels to detail. Yet this is a kind of 'anti-thinking'. Goals and the capabilities you need to get there are interdependent.

We'll look at six things you really need to get your strategy as good as it can be in a future that is unknown.

Nicholas Gruen, CEO of Lateral Economics

Nicholas Gruen is a widely published policy economist, entrepreneur and commentator on our economy, society and innovation.

He is CEO of Lateral Economics, Visiting Professor at Kings College London Policy Institute and Adjunct Professor at UTS Business School, Chair of Peach Financial the Open Knowledge Foundation (Australia).

He is Patron of the Australian Digital Alliance, comprising Australia’s libraries, universities, and providers of digital infrastructure such as Google and Yahoo. He chaired the Federal Government’s Innovation Australia until 2014 and chaired The Australian Centre for Social Innovation (TACSI) until 2016. In 2009, he chaired Australia’s internationally acclaimed Government 2.0 Taskforce.

He chaired San Francisco based data analytics crowdsourcing platform Kaggle.com which has now been acquired by Google and is an investor in numerous Australian and international start-ups. He has advised Cabinet Ministers, sat on Australia’s Productivity Commission (then Industry Commission) and founded Lateral Economics and Peach Financial. He has had regular columns in various daily papers and published numerous essays on political, economic and cultural matters.

Business Lunch - Becoming an Internet of Things Company

From connected cars to connected homes to connected industry, it is estimated that more than 50 billion devices will be connected to the internet by 2022.

Bosch Australia’s President Gavin Smith will talk about Bosch’s transition from being exclusively a “Things” company, to becoming a leading “Internet of Things company” and its pivotal role in shaping the future of personal mobility and the factory of the future.

Gavin Smith joined Bosch Australia in 1990 following 10 years in various Information Technology roles at a number of well-known Multinationals in Australia and New Zealand. After a successful two years in Frankfurt as part of Bosch’s Original Equipment Sales team, Gavin held a number of senior leadership positions in the company’s Australian Automotive Components divisions including Regional President of the Powertrain Division from 2003 and Regional President of the Vehicle Safety Systems Division from 2008.

In 2011, Gavin was promoted to the position of President and Chairman of the local subsidiary Robert Bosch Australia.

Gavin holds a Bachelor of Commerce degree from the University of Otago in New Zealand, and an MBA from Monash University in Melbourne.

In addition to his Bosch responsibilities, Gavin is the Chair of the Internet of Things Australia Alliance (IoTA) and a member of the Prime Minister’s Industry 4.0 Taskforce. He also holds board positions with dealership group Stillwell Motor Group, manufacturer FMP, ag-tech start-up “The Yield” and the German-Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (AHK).

Gavin is passionate about eliminating homelessness and has participated in the St Vincent de Paul CEO sleep-out for the past five years.

Business Lunch - Creating A Winning Team

Nick Green, OAM is one of Australia’s Olympic heroes and was a member of the rowing greats, the Oarsome Foursome. His achievements have been recognised with an Order of Australia and an Australian Sports Medal. In 2012 he went to London as the Chef de Mission of the Australian Olympic team.

Nick uses the experiences he has had and the lessons he has learned as a competitive elite sportsman to deliver messages about success, teamwork and leadership that have valuable applications for the equally competitive business environment.

His presentation will focus on the importance of team work, maintaining motivation, developing a winning attitude and creating opportunities in a competitive environment.

More about Nick Green:

Nick Green is an experienced leader who has worked in senior roles across numerous areas including elite high performance sport, governance, finance and government relations. He is currently Chief Executive Officer of Cycling Australia. Before this, he spent six years at the Victorian Major Events Company, his last position being Group Manager of Acquisition and Development. He is the immediate Past President of the Victorian Olympic Council, an Executive Board Member of the Australian Olympic Committee, a Fellow and Director of Leadership Victoria and a Board Member of VicHealth.

Nick has attended seven Olympic Games and was the Chef de Mission of the 2012 Australian Olympic Team. He was awarded the Order of Australia Medal and inducted into the Sport Australia Hall of Fame in recognition of his sporting achievements which included being a member rowing’s famous Oarsome Foursome that won two world titles and the 1992 and 1996 Olympic gold medals.

Business Lunch - Cyber Security in Business

While the potential of the internet and digital economy clearly represents a significant opportunity for Australia, it is also quickly emerging as a key enabler for criminal activity.

Common types of cybercrime include hacking, online scams and fraud, identity theft, attacks on computer systems and illegal or prohibited online content.

Alison O’Hare, Customer Engagement Director from Mimecast, will present all aspects of on-line security relevant to the business community.

Alison’s presentation will include social engineering, trends in the market place and how easy it is to fall for scams. Alison will also provide easy to implement solutions for businesses large and small.